Slots declining, gaming growing: demand migrates to other channels

Between 2018 and 2025, overall gaming revenue in Italy went from 106.8 to 165.4 billion euros.

In the same period, that of devices fell from 48.7 to 31.5 billion, AWP and VLT lost control of 662 municipalities and the number of workers in the supply chain went from 79,500 to 70 thousand.

Revenue also follows divergent trajectories: the overall revenue rose from 10.7 to 11.5 billion, that of physical gaming fell from 9.8 to 8.9 billion and that of gaming machines from 6.2 to around 5 billion.

These are the numbers presented by Geronimo Cardia, president of Acadi-Confcommercio, at the association's 2026 Forum, dedicated to the "Social impact of rules". For Cardia, demand "does not disappear: it migrates from one product to another, from one channel to another, when it does not end up illegal".

Distances from sensitive places and time limits have reduced the authorized offer in part of the territory without slowing down overall growth.

With the expiration of the delegation for the reorganization of physical gaming, he maintains, "the bridging measures are vital": rebalancing of the Preu, the single tax levy, and of the payout, the share of bets returned in winnings, experimentation of new generation AWPs and VLTs and extensions that do not become an additional cost for operators.

The Sustainability Report presented at the Forum measures these effects on four public interests: user protection, legality, revenue and employment.

For Lino Enrico Stoppani, deputy vice-president of Confcommercio, legal gaming companies "are not asking for fewer rules, but better rules", and the request is a national regulation of the physical network based on supervision, training, technology and prevention.

For Mario Lollobrigida, Games director of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, the compression of the devices does not reduce the overall game but shifts part of it towards online.

The fragmentation between distance meters, time limits and other constraints makes it difficult for a concessionaire to know where and under what conditions he will be able to operate, and therefore to plan the races: it takes about a year to prepare and carry out one, hence the need for extensions.

The reorganization text prepared with the Mef and the General Accounting Office and arrived at Palazzo Chigi was, he recalls, "balanced" and should be taken up again in the next legislature.